Hog production was impacted by devastating typhoons that hit China's Guangxi Province a week ago. Dead pigs pose a disease risk and a pork deficit in a region that accounts for more than 1 in 20 pigs raised in the country.
Torrential rains from super-typhoon Maysak inundated the region on July 6. Entire villages were flooded or swept away after the release of water from reservoirs and the breaching of at least one major dam. Images from the most seriously affected areas, including Hengzhou, Guigang, and Binyang, look like war zones. Officially only 39 people were killed and 9 were missing, but the real death toll had to be much larger. Chinese news propaganda has quickly shifted to venomous snakes on the loose, light-hearted coverage of rescue teams, company donations, and fun ways to cope with flooding.
The death toll for pigs is visibly higher. The Youtube video below shows thousands of dead pig carcasses, dozens of surviving pigs stuck on the roofs of their barns, swimming in flood water, and others wandering through buildings and fields looking for food.
Guangxi is a major pig-producing region, accounting for about 5.5% of national pork output. Guangxi has become a supplier of pigs to the more industrialized provinces of Guangdong and Hunan to its north. One of China's leading hog producers, Zhengbang Group, has estimated that flooding impacts on its subsidiaries in Guangxi amount to about 10% of its annual profit.
Rotting carcasses floating in water contaminated with sewage and animal feces raise the risk of disease epidemics. Flooding contaminated drinking water, ruined feed supplies, left behind mud-caked buildings, washed-out roads and bridges, destroyed electric transmission lines, and scattered farm workers.
On July 13, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs posted a directive to prevent the spread of animal disease by dispatching 22 tons of disinfectant, 9,300 sets of protective clothing, and other disease prevention materials. Priority is on the safe disposal of dead livestock and poultry and transport of animal feed and veterinary drugs to Guangxi.
The Ministry is urging the rapid restoration of agricultural production by draining and replanting fields, supplying piglets and seedlings, and ensuring that families don't slip back into poverty as a result of the disaster.
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